Life Tiles and Action Cards Revisited: A Vital Component of the Game of Life

Life Tiles and Action Cards Revisited: A Vital Component of the Game of Life

Although I have already discussed Life Tiles in some of my earlier posts here regarding the Game of Life, I have yet to make an in-depth discussion about them (or the Action Cards that replaced them, for that matter). So how exactly were Life Tiles introduced to the Game of Life in the first place? For context, consider that the original version of the game was out of step with contemporary values by 1990, a full three decades after its debut. Therefore, the next version would have to change with the times - by rewarding players for being good citizens.

With this in mind, some spaces were now designated as Life Spaces. Anyone who landed on them would receive a Life Tile, but if the draw pile became empty, they could take a Life Tile from another player, unless that player had retired at Countryside Acres. Thus, the only time that a Life Space could not award a Life Tile at all is when all other players have either retired at Countryside Acres and/or have no Life Tiles in their inventories.

The new version of the Game Of Life had three Life Tiles worth $250,000, four tiles worth $200,000, five tiles worth $150,000, six tiles worth $100,000, and seven tiles worth $50,000, for a total of 25 - these values were printed on the reverse side, with black text on an orange background. However, four Life Tiles would be randomly placed at Millionaire Estates at the start of the game (to be given to the richest player who retired there), leaving the remaining 21 tiles to be placed in the draw pile. In addition, each Life Tile had a description on the reverse side, with those of the more valuable tiles referencing more prestigious achievements.

Originally, Life Tiles were highly prized, especially by players who were falling behind in terms of net worth. As such, it was possible for a less wealthy player to earn a come-from-behind victory by gaining a sufficiently large amount of money from their Life Tiles. To reduce the chance of such unexpected comebacks, all Life Tile values were reduced fivefold in 2002, when the Game of Life was updated. Thus, there were now three $50,000 tiles, four $40,000 tiles, five $30,000 tiles, six $20,000 tiles, and seven $10,000 tiles. 

These values were retained when the Game of Life was redesigned yet again in 2007, although the tiles' descriptions were removed, and on the reverse side the black text on an orange background was replaced by white text outlined in black over a yellow background. In addition, the draw pile consisted of 22 tiles, since there were now only three tiles out of 25 that would be randomly selected for placement at Millionaire Estates at the start of the game, and each of the first three players who retired there would receive one tile.

In the current version of the Game of Life (in print since 2013), Life Tiles are completely absent; instead, Action Cards have taken their place. These can only be obtained by landing on yellow Action Spaces, which are intended to represent important events in a person's life. Each Action Card is worth only 100,000 points at the end of the game, but unlike Life Tiles, these items cannot be lost after being acquired. Moreover, each Action Card contains instructions that vary from losing your job to collecting or paying money, in some cases from and to another player, respectively. Finally, at the end of the game, the value of each player's Action Cards will be added to their net worth. 

However, in The Game of Life 2, which is a stand-alone video game not based on any existing board game variant (a first for the franchise), Action Cards have been replaced by three new items: Happiness, Knowledge and Wealth tokens. These can be earned from Action spaces or through a Fate space. Moreover, choosing the Bucket List option upon retirement will grant the player an opportunity to spin for additional tokens during their turn until all other players have retired. Regardless of type, however, they will contribute to a player's final score upon retirement in the same way that Action Cards and Life Tiles did in previous versions - each token is worth 100,000 points, and the player with the most tokens of a specific type will also receive an additional points bonus.

As I have previously described in this series, it is worth noting that a later version of Generation II gave the Athlete career a unique ability in which returning 4 Life Tiles will yield the $100,000 Salary Card, trading salaries if necessary. Also, the Enhanced Mode of the video game adaptation of Generation III has a unique Share the Wealth Card named "Shared Memories", which allows any player who obtained it to take a Life Tile from any other player. However, this card can only ever be obtained at random, and as stated above, is useless if no Life Tiles are in play. In both of these cases, these rules were not part of the original rule sets of the respective generations of the Game of Life in which they were introduced.

This concludes our discussion of Life Tiles and the items that replaced them. Stay tuned for the next post in this series, in which I discuss a persistent housing problem that has plagued the Game of Life for decades - and has only recently been solved once and for all.